I have been running into the same situation over and over - both live and online. I will be sitting around 10th place for chips - give or take. Usually around 3 levels left until late registration is closed. I will OF COURSE have a monster stack at my table, usually 10> for chip stack.

I will have AJc - Flop will come Qc10c2h - Flopping a monster draw, am i right to call off here with just a draw? Hoping to build a stack to at least cash, but should go way deeper than that. Regardless of image or table tightness - is this correct to call off here for that circumstance alone on building a stack in hopes of going extremely deep on JUST a draw? Even if I already have a top 10 stack late in tourney?

Any help or insight would be extremely useful and much appreciated. I feel like both tourneys and cash I always build a stack, but it always comes down to a big pot that I cant seem to win and get over the hump with.

If late reg and rebuys are still open, you shouldn't be worried about busting and focus on building your stack. That's not late in the tourney, it's still the early game.

Whether calling off a combo draw on the flop is correct depends on exact spot and odds you are getting, but most likely it's gonna be fine.

I am not a fan of stacking off here. Against a weak queen, you're something like 65%. Against a set, you're only 35%. Versus something like KQ, you're about even money.

Its not horrendous, but I find it difficult to win poker tournaments by repeatedly getting my money in as a coin flip.

I only have something like 11 final tables to my name, all at micro stakes no less, but I am a small winner. I rarely have a huge stack, but I also very rarely get my money in as an underdog.

If you already have a decent stack, it seems crazy to me to gamble that on a coin flip. But then again, more chips means a greater chance to win.

I've been struggling with the concept of how to win tournaments for years, and some of it is still so counter-intuitive to me.

I guess mathematically, if you have 10x the starting stack, and you have a monster draw, then you double up to a super massive stack, which increases your factor of winning by.... clearly a large percent.

But what kind of risk are you going to have to take to double your stack? If you think you can just outplay people and steadily chip up, then probably don't do it. I dunno, poker is hard, but I can't stop playing.

Having a big stack early in a tourney is nice and all, but it should not change your strategy to any great degree. After all, the blinds will probably increase by a factor of at least 10-20 between the near the end of late reg stage and the final table. That means even a 100bb stack, which would generally be a very large stack, at the early stages will turn into a 5-10 bb stack by the final table unless you chip up along the way. I look on a big stack early as sort of a get out of jail free card. If I screw up a hand or just get unlucky I still am alive with a decent stack if I build a big stack early vs being crippled or eliminated if I don’t.

You can be aggressive and raise this, you can be passive and call this, what you can't do is fold this. Nut flush draw with a gutshot and an overcard? Monster flop. Most of the time if its checked to me Im betting about half pot and if its bet to me I'll either raise or call depending in my read on the bettor.

If by call off you mean someone shoves, Ill happily call with this hand. You have to take some chances in a tournament to get ahead, and this is a good spot.

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Some specifics would be helpful.
I can't tell for sure what you mean by "deep" in an MTT......deep, like near the end/bubble? Or deep-stacked?

You seem to imply you have the monster stack, but then also say "10>" (which I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean......it seems to say "10" is bigger than your stack; but 10 what? Big blinds? Obv that's NOT a monster stack....so I'm just a little confused at to what situation you're describing here).

And when you say "call off", do you mean someone puts you all-in? And is that on the first bet (or like on a 3bet of your raise)?
Or are you implying more of a "call-down" situation [where they're putting in more moderate sized bets per street, and you're asking if you should just calling down].


Again it's hard to say specifically, without knowing a bit more of the specifics (reads would be good too).
Generally speaking, I would say this is a decent spot to be getting chips in on the flop and hope for the best. You can't go deep into the money in an MTT without catching some luck in spots like this, and this is an extraordinary huge draw (nfd, gut-shot, and an overcard), so I would tend to play aggressive: if I'm able to raise all-in [if stacks dictate that level of raise is appropriate], that's what I'm doing. I'm otherwise content [probably] to raise/call all-in (at least without a specific read).

If someone just straight-up puts you all-in on the first bet that you're faced with the decision of calling......idk; that depends on the villain, stacks/odds, etc.